1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to remote sensing and, more particularly, to active remote sensing.
2. Description of Related Art
Active remote sensing may be conceptualized as viewing radiation reflected and/or emitted from a certain location in one or more wavelength regions. Active multispectral remote sensing utilizes a source of radiation (e.g., infrared, visible, or ultraviolet light) to illuminate a target while measuring the reflected and/or emitted radiation at one or more detectors.
One scheme for performing active remote sensing is to stare at a location with a single detector while illuminating the location with one or more wavelengths of radiation. Various sources of noise, however, may lower the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the measurement. Examples of such noise typically present in active remote sensing include solar background radiation and 1/f noise (i.e., noise whose power varies inversely with frequency).
Thus, there is a need in the art to perform active remote sensing from a remote platform while maintaining a high SNR.